How direct mail marketing will rule 2019
It wasn’t long ago that marketers were predicting that the print industry would be overtaken by digital, but as 2018 comes to an end, print is as popular as ever and more traditional methods of marketing, including brochures and direct mail, are staging a comeback.
2019: The year of direct mail marketing
With the proliferation of digital marketing strategies, you may think that direct mail seems old fashioned and no longer effective. This couldn’t be further from the truth. With email inboxes overflowing with newsletters, it’s becoming harder for marketers to cut through all the noise. Direct mail, however, can play a powerful role if you are willing to use it as part of an integrated marketing strategy.
People like getting mail. Admit it, you’re more likely to open an envelope than you are an unsolicited email in your inbox. The tangibility of direct mail makes it harder to ignore; the moment it is delivered through a post-box the recipient has no choice but to pick it up and either throw it away or open it. This means that if you create something eye-catching you are literally putting a message directly into the hands of your target audience.
This is backed up by research, which shows that the average household response rate for direct mail is 5.1% while email is just 0.6% and social media as low as 0.4%. Direct mail is also easier for people to understand, requiring 21% less cognitive effort to process than digital marketing. What does this mean for your business? It means that once your target audience has received and read your direct mail marketing, the chances are they will be more likely to recall your business or brand.
Does GDPR affect direct mail?
The European privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), came into effect earlier in 2018. The law places obligations on anyone processing the personal data of EU citizens and limits the way this data can be used. The transition has been tricky for businesses since data is at the heart of every form of modern marketing. The policies laid out in the law make email and phone marketing difficult for companies until they have adapted their use of data.
It is music to the ears of marketers when they hear that direct mail is mostly exempt from GDPR which means you can continue sending direct mailers to the majority of your audience without making too many changes to how you operate. This is because, unlike email and telephone marketing, direct mail doesn’t require the recipient to opt-in to receive communication from your company. The company only needs to prove the recipient has legitimate interest in their goods or services.
It’s for the reasons above that direct mail marketing is predicted to explode in 2019. Make sure you’re ahead of the curve — let Hague manage all of your direct mailings including data manipulation and processing, digital colour print and personalisation and international mailings.
Click here to enquire and a member of Hague’s expert direct mailer team will contact you to arrange a free consultation.